What Did You Want To Be When You Grew Up?

[LizzieMaine]

I came across an old childhood scrapbook today, full of clippings I collected around the second grade -- most of them articles about space. That got me thinking about my earliest childhood ambition -- to be an astronomer. I even got a telescope for Christmas when I was eight, and I loved looking at the moon. But I gave up that dream because I realized math was involved in serious astronomy -- and math and I have long had an understanding to stay out of each other's way.

So then I decided that, since I always read the funnies, I would be a cartoonist. I kept at that all thru high school, and actually amassed a drawerful of rejection slips -- some of them even personalized -- before giving it up.

Then I ended up going into radio and writing -- neither of which had anything to do with either of my childhood ambitions.

How 'bout you? What was your childhood dream -- and did you stick with it?

 

[Samsa]

Wow...haven't thought about this topic for a while. I've always had too many interests, and as a result wanted to be different things. Those included:

rock star (I don't think I need to tell you how that one worked out)
architect (don't have the math skills)
poet (i am still a part time doggerelist, but don't see that going anywhere)
lawyer (just started law school, so I guess this is the one)

I'm curious to see what other loungers will have to say about their childhoods...

 

[CharlieH.]

When I was but a tyke of 4 years old, I wanted to be a farmer... little did I know.
Between the ages of 5 and 10, I wanted to be a railroad engineer, but I was put off by numerous stories of magnificent train wrecks and the fact that steam engines are no longer used. Diesels, phooey!
Following that, I was bitten by the cartoon bug and I wanted to become an animator or a comic strip artist (and badly so). I dreamed of having my own studio and probably, just probably, become the next Bob Clampett or Chuck Jones.
Nowadays, I stick to that last dream, but without the heavy rosy tint.

 

[Elaina]

I had a weird childhood. Not exactly the happiest.

I wanted to be a chemist and a writer. I did the chemistry bit up until my senior year of high school, and got arrested for stealing all the guinea pigs from the college. I couldn't kill them with a radioactive chemical I KNEW was going to kill them. So that was a no go.

Then I always wanted to be a writer. I am.

Then in my teenage years I wanted to be a fashion designer. I finish up my degree soon.

Elaina

 

[scotrace]

Actor.

 

[Braxton36]

I started out wanting to be a doctor or a chemist (too many Madame Currie and Louis Pasteur biographies). After killing all the banana trees in our courtyard and nearly killing a cat with my chemistry set, I moved onto architect. I stayed in that mode for several years until I realized that I was hopeless in complex math and couldn't draw so much as a straight line. I still love fiddling with houses, though. I settled for lawyer by college. Now all I want to be is retired. When I grow up.

 

[Senator Jack]

Millionaire playboy. No kidding. The sort that had a valet and a Park Avenue apartment. I certainly watched too many 60s movies when I was kid. It didn't matter what I was going to do to make money - perhaps I'd be a cartoonist like Jack Lemmon in 'How to Murder Your Wife' - all that mattered was that I'd have that apartment and the valet.

Hate to admit it, but I think I'm still pursuing that goal.:eusa_doh:

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Artist.
I was fascinated by art ever since I can remember, so eventually I learned how to make art.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Believe it or not, I wanted to be a housewife! I still want to be a mom, and this is just my opinion, I went into the field I'm in with the thought in mind that I'd be able to hold down a job and still be a mom. The field I'm in is very flexible, and I will hopefully be able to take a job in which I will only work when my kids (when I have them) are in school. I hope that I am in a situation to be able to do this.

 

[Harp]

Boyhood Ambition

Army officer. Enlisted at seventeen, volunteered
for Vietnam; later, while serving as an advisor with the Greek Army
in Macedonia, met a Greek girl, tossed away a regular army
West Point appointment to marry her, had to rotate back to the
USA for seven months, went back to Greece a newly-minted almost
twenty-one year old civy bachelor for the wedding, and returned
a bachelor... Left the Army for a woman who didn't want to marry
a soldier, nor be a GI Bill wife. Having thrown away the Point and a
regular army commission during the post-war reduction in force, I
stayed a civy.

 

[deanglen]

Stuntman.

 

[Phil]

I wanted to be Moe from the Three Stooges.

 

[Jay]

I wanted to be a pilot. (Does this qualify as a childhood ambition if I'm still only 18?) Which brings me to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the present time.

 

[Nick Charles]

Rich, Tall and handsome. Maybe some day I'll get some money , buy elevator shoes and look like Gable

 

[raiderrescuer]

Secret Agent...

When i was a kid I had a Fuller Brush Man Letter Opener for a "dagger" and a Johnson & Smith Spy Kit and watched all the episodes of Wild, Wild West; Prisoner; Avengers; Get Smart; Man from U.N.C.L.E.; Mission Impossible; Batman; Jonny Quest and of course Bond, James Bond.

 

[Lauren]

Hmm... I think it goes like this in order of time:
Fashion Designer
Animator
Art Teacher
English Teacher
Costume Designer
Housewife & mum
And now I guess if I can't be a housewife (God willing I will be...) I suppose I'll move to Europe and work in costume museams... after I get another degree of course!

 

[Novella]

I wanted to be an actress when I was really little, then I wanted to be a film director, and inbetween and during all of that I wanted to be a writer. I do a lot of writing as a history major, so in a way I'm a writer (although when I was younger I wanted to do fiction writing and not academic).

 

[Phobic]

As a very young child, I wanted to be a dinosaur when i grew up. After these dreams were broken, I wanted to be an architect.(I'm glad to see I wasn't the only child with this ambition.)
Eventualy, that developed into a desire to be a Mechanical Engineer. Which lasted until my second year of college, when I realized I didn't enjoy it, and was quite bad at it too. Now, I'm not sure what I want to be, I'm thinking of going back to Dinosaur.

 

[skinnychik]

After being told I could become anything I wanted to be, I announced that I wanted to be...

...a turtle.

I have no idea why. Little kids don't use logic...I've not grown out of that.

You see, Phobic, reptiles are a very common thing to want to be.

 

[Doctor Strange]

As a second-generation film buff, from an early age I wanted to be a filmmaker. That could be writer-director, cinematographer, editor... I did it all (including acting by default) in the Super 8 and 16mm films (and half-inch open reel videotape projects) I made in my high school/college years.

Alas, it was not to be. By the time I got out of college, I had impressive skills and talent, but no connections in the industry, nor (even more importantly) the self-confidence and aggressive personality required to make it in such a competitive field. So I've settled for being a lifelong film collector/scholar/critic...